Prescott may impose firefighter pay deal

1:06PM GMT 28 Jan 2003

The Government has toughened its line against striking firefighters by announcing new legislation with the aim of imposing a pay rise to try to end their dispute.

John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, launched a fresh attack against the Fire Brigades' Union for giving "false and misleading" information about the threat of job losses and station closures, accusing it of being completely opposed to modernisation.

As thousands of firemen and women staged their latest strike over pay, Mr Prescott told MPs that the time had come for the Government to take a further step to help break the deadlock.

"As a matter of priority I will introduce legislation in the public interest to take new powers of direction over the fire service," he told the Commons.

The new powers will bring a "new and much needed sense of reality" into future negotiations. Provisions in the 1947 Fire Services Act, which were repealed in 1959, will be reactivated to allow the Government to specify pay, terms and conditions in the fire service.